As shown in FIG. 1, a software developer may operate a development system 10 to develop a cloud-based application 20 conforming to a cloud-native application framework, and push (i.e., deploy) the developed application to cloud-based application platform 30. Cloud-based application platform 30 supports application lifecycle stages including development, testing and deployment. Application platform 30 hosts application 20 within container 40, which communicates to the outside world via a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port.
A developer will typically modify application 20 several times (e.g., for debugging, incremental deployment, etc.) after initial deployment. In order to reflect these modifications in the deployed application, the developer re-pushes (now-modified) application 20 to platform 30. As a result, container 40 which hosts application 20 is killed and application 20 is re-deployed to a new container which is associated with a new TCP port. This process may be time- and resource-intensive. Improved support for development activities is desired.